Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Green Processing and Nutrition of Foods (G&N Research Center), approved by Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Department in 2013，is mainly established by School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology (SCUT), in line with the development of two national key disciplines, Food science and engineering and Light Industry Technology and Engineering. Specifying Guangzhou Modern Industrial Technology Research Institute as the main industrial base, the center integrates Sino-US cooperation in R&D function of sugar, Guangdong International Sugar Center, SCUT-Infinitus cooperative R&D Center, etc., with the intent to put in place a largest concentration of expertise and infrastructure dedicated to food research and development. Under the guidance of Prof. Mouming Zhao, G&N Research Center specializes in green food processing, quality and nutrition, and is committed to developing innovative methods to preserve food nutrition, flavor and ensuring safety and low-carbon throughout food processing.
At present, the center has a professional research and development team mainly consisting of 14 professors, 10 associate professors, 10 employed research staff and more than 50 postgraduates for doctoral and master’s degree. With a total area of over 5600 m2, the center is equipped with a variety of modern instruments for material characterization, including Q-TOF, UPLC, HPLC, GC-MS, protein purification system, inverted fluorescence microscope, high-speed refrigerated centrifuge, chemiluminescence imaging system, VarioSkan Flash Multimode Reader, fluorescence spectrophotometer, Mastersize 3000 laser particle size analyser, automatic contact angle meter, Zetasizer Nano ZS Particle Sizer, TA texture analyzer, HAAKE MARS III Rheometer, amino acid analyzer and EBC fermenter etc. Food processing facilities designed for sub-tropical fruits processing, (mainly involving pre/post treatment, frozen &concentrate procedure and dedicated filling line, etc.) as well as food processing pilot plant with traditional and novel processing equipment used to study active compounds from herbal species and bioactive peptides are also well-developed.
The center now has three affiliated laboratories focusing on food biotechnology, food nutrition and health, and greening processing and equipment, respectively. Advanced technics involving high-value utilization of bulk protein resources, food fermentation and metabolic regulation, natural products chemistry and functional foods preparation are specialized. Development on non-thermal pulsed electric field sterilization technology, ultrasonic and microwave application and high static pressure technology etc. also help agri-food industry reduce cost and add value. So far, a series of key technologies have been developed and partial achievements achieved have successfully been adopted by many enterprises in the form of technique services and/or project cooperation, such as Haday, By-Health, Infinitus, Perfect (China), Xinghu Tec, Meiweixian, Zhenzhou Group, DaQiao, Newbiochem, etc. These advanced achievements impose a strong driving momentum to the development of food industry nationwide.
